Uh oh, where did my CoH install and my Sentinel backups go?

[Surelle]

Okay, I know there was a rumor back in December that the NCSoft launcher was somehow automatically deleting CoH from peoples' computers, but then someone here said it wasn't true, so I didn't worry about it.

But today I happened to notice that my Sentinel backup folder, which had been on my desktop, wasn't there anymore.  (I'm not sure when it disappeared, either; I've been busy lately and haven't been on my PC for any great length of time.)  Nor do my backed up characters appear to be anywhere else.  The only Sentinel program I have is straight in downloads, and it has no other files or folders with it.

So I opened up my NCSoft launcher, CoH was totally missing from it, and when I do a search in Win 7 for City of Heroes, or the CoH beta, I see their icons, but when I right click them and go to Open File Location, I get taken straight to the folder with the NCSoft launcher application in it (which is highlighted when I get there), and...there's no CoH or CoH beta application anywhere.

Am I losing it?  Where is CoH?   I even had the test server with I24 installed, never mind the whole regular game.  I haven't touched anything.  Egads.

PS/ This wouldn't deter me from a compatible server in the slightest, so the joke's on NCSoft if that original rumor really was true.  I will just level all over again, no biggie.  I paid for CoH so I could, ya know, play it.   :P  And I still have all my disks as well as the Going Rogue box.

[Arachnion]

You still had NC launcher installed!?

And you ran it too!?

BLASPHEMY.

Ahem.

All your disks and going rogue copy would now be outdated.

We can't exactly save your Sentinel backups or assorted data, unless you put them up somewhere else online as backups.

http://www.savecoh.com/p/download-issue-24-beta.html <--  ;)

[Surelle]

Whew, I backed up my Sentinel folder onto my flash drive 11/29/12.  Woo!  Thank goodness for that anyway.

Thanks a bunch.   What a bunch of nervy sleazebags.  I'm really mad now.  They had no right to go into my personal computer and mess with my files, nor my personal backups.

[Arachnion]

Whew, I backed up my Sentinel folder onto my flash drive 11/29/12.  Woo!  Thank goodness for that anyway.

Thanks a bunch.   What a bunch of nervy sleazebags.  I'm really mad now.  They had no right to go into my personal computer and mess with my files, nor my personal backups.

Yeah, you're welcome.

I got rid of the NC launcher back in early December, and my files have stayed since then.

Sorry to hear you lost your stuff.

:-\

[Surelle]

Yeah, you're welcome.

I got rid of the NC launcher back in early December, and my files have stayed since then.

Sorry to hear you lost your stuff.

:-\

Don't worry, I had it backed up on a flash drive.  38 characters, a bunch of 50s, 46, etc., still safe and sound.

Er, by the way folks, that rumor about NCSoft automatically deleting CoH and all its attendant files and Sentinel backups from your machine?  It's not just a rumor.  ;)  D'oh! 

Always remember:  Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you.   ;)

[Septipheran]

Wait, the NC Launcher is deleting Sentinel files? Wha? They don't own Sentinel.

[Arachnion]

Wait, the NC Launcher is deleting Sentinel files? Wha? They don't own Sentinel.

That is very odd, yes.

[Codewalker]

Wait, the NC Launcher is deleting Sentinel files? Wha? They don't own Sentinel.

Or the OP simply misplaced the files, perhaps by moving them to the flash drive instead of copying. Impossible to say without more evidence.

[Surelle]

Or the OP simply misplaced the files, perhaps by moving them to the flash drive instead of copying. Impossible to say without more evidence.

I guess I can't say 100% what happened back in November, but my sentinel backups are on the flash drive.  Okay, NC, I will somehow give you the benefit of the doubt that somehow I only backed them up directly there without realizing it.

I'm just glad I still have them, although I would just level again from scratch anyway.  So nervy though, the whole thing.

And is the download the entire game, or should I reinstall all my boxed disks first, up through Going Rogue?  I think that's the last disk available, or at least it's the final one I have.

[Arachnion]

I guess I can't say 100% what happened back in November, but my sentinel backups are on the flash drive.  Okay, NC, I will somehow give you the benefit of the doubt that somehow I only backed them up directly there without realizing it.

I'm just glad I still have them, although I would just level again from scratch anyway.  So nervy though, the whole thing.

And is the download the entire game, or should I reinstall all my boxed disks first, up through Going Rogue?  I think that's the last disk available, or at least it's the final one I have.

That download is the entire game, yes, but from the Beta server. (Issue 24)

Issue 23, would be the last live version of the game, I believe.

In other words, both versions are the complete game, just one is an unfinished Issue in Beta testing, and the other is the last, pre-sunset stable Issue.

This reference on game development cycles may help understand.

Pre-production design phase, concept, pitch
Prototype
Alpha
Beta
Live

[Surelle]

Oh, if I keep seeding now that I'm done downloading, is it possible for me to get viruses and trojans from other peoples' machines?  I do run Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security but still.  Or is the worst chance when I was actually downloading from others' machines?  Lol, a bit late to be thinking of that then, huh?   ;)

[Arachnion]

Oh, if I keep seeding now that I'm done downloading, is it possible for me to get viruses and trojans from other peoples' machines?  I do run Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security but still.  Or is the worst chance when I was actually downloading from others' machines?  Lol, a bit late to be thinking of that then, huh?   ;)

If you're worried, just don't seed :)

If it makes you feel any better, that I24 beta torrent is by Leandro, and all the people who would download it are fellow CoH fans, so..

[Kaiser Tarantula]

Oh, if I keep seeding now that I'm done downloading, is it possible for me to get viruses and trojans from other peoples' machines?  I do run Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security but still.  Or is the worst chance when I was actually downloading from others' machines?  Lol, a bit late to be thinking of that then, huh?   ;)

To insert a trojan or virus into the torrent, they'd have to modify the outgoing packet traffic, and then somehow fool the recipient machines into thinking that the pieces it's sending out are both legitimate and actually part of the file that is being downloaded.

All downloaded fragments in a torrent are hashed and checked against a known-good hash before they're added to your file.  Otherwise the fragments are discarded and a request for the same fragment is issued to the uploading peers the torrent network.  Most torrent applications, if they consistently recieve fragments from an uploader that don't check out, will ignore that uploader and request from someone else.

Further, even if someone did manage to pull it off and slip a virus into the upload stream of a torrent, the virus would be isolated until the infected file was executed.  This is why you pause/stop any torrent download as soon as it finishes, before you seed it, so that you can scan the files for viruses.  Once the scan finishes and comes back clean, then you can resume the upload and seed it.

Of course, user awareness is the best defense.  Don't download from people you don't trust.  As Arachnion pointed out, the torrent was originally created by Leandro, and virtually everyone seeding this particular file is either a member or lurker of Titan Network.  You can make your own judgement based on that.

[Codewalker]

If it makes you feel any better, that I24 beta torrent is by Leandro, and all the people who would download it are fellow CoH fans, so..

I checked the files in that torrent against my I24 beta and it was an exact match, so they're clean.

If someone is worried, PM me and I can provide a list of MD5 / SHA1 hashes to check and verify against. At this point modifying the files in the torrent would require someone uploading a different .torrent file to the savecoh site, because that file includes hashes of the file chunks in order to verify that they are correct.

You can't get viruses just from seeding (unless your torrent program is buggy and has a security hole), but technically distributing the client is a violation of copyright. You could potentially be subject to legal action from NCSoft if they were to bother to track down everyone in the torrent. I kind of doubt it would be worth the legal expenses to them, but if they wanted to be jerks they could.

[ColTech]

So Now I'm growing a bit unsettled....
What should I do to protect my current CoH installs?
How are these files disappearing?
IS it only if you run the NCShaft Launcher?
Or do they disappear at other times?

And if the Launcher is the culprit, what's the best way to eliminate it, and not lose anything CoH related?
 

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

My directories containing the live and beta builds as of the shutdown are already copied to flash drives, but if the NCsoft launcher will automatically deleted the installed versions when run that's a bit of a dick move. i haven't run the launcher since shortly after November 30th, but haven't planned to delete it either. Would renaming the game directories be enough to stop it from deleting the copies of CoH if i did run it?

[Kaiser Tarantula]

And if the Launcher is the culprit, what's the best way to eliminate it, and not lose anything CoH related?

Find your CoH install directories (City of Heroes for I23 Live, and CoHBeta for I24 Beta), and archive them into a .zip or .rar or .7z file, depending on which archiver you use.  Once you've done that, move the .zip file to another folder (such as My Documents).

Then use the Launcher's own uninstaller to uninstall it.  Even if it does kill the City of Heroes directories themselves, they're still preserved intact within your archive file, which the launcher will not recognize and will not touch it.

Whatever you do, do not run the launcher itself.  Use your control panel -> add/remove programs option to activate the launcher's uninstaller without running it.

[Aggelakis]

The NCsoft launcher doesn't delete City just by running it. The NCsoft launcher CANNOT delete Sentinel. Just laying those rumors to rest.

[Manga]

Or the OP simply misplaced the files, perhaps by moving them to the flash drive instead of copying. Impossible to say without more evidence.

Also, some versions of Windows tend to "clean up the desktop" without warning.

[Mister Bison]

Also, some versions of Windows tend to "clean up the desktop" without warning.

Except maybe in windows 8 because I don't know it yet, the cleaning's only about unused links (.lnk), never data files.